book lovin' blog

December 21, 2017December 29, 2017

Gardens by the Bay & Masjid Sultan (Singapore pt 2 of 2)

We woke up way too early on our first day in Singapore. It was 5 AM and no restaurants or attractions opened until 10, which left me with a talkative baby and no way to entertain her. I let her roll around while I video chatted with family, then we headed out for a walk, hoping we’d be able to find our way back.

Side note: This was the first trip that I opted not to get a Pocket Wifi or SIM card, so I was traveling 90s style–giant map outstretched in front of me wherever I went.

We walked through Little India, where restaurants were already open and selling delicious curries. I was just about to give up on my navigation skills when I saw Masjid Sultan looming over us.

This mosque is gorgeous! Doesn’t it remind you of something out of Aladdin?

Next up, we hopped on Singapore’s amazingly efficient MRT and headed to Marina Bay. These futuristic biodomes are air-conditioned and perfectly manicured. The entire time I was there, I kept wondering if this was what “nature” would be for Teagan. In 30 years, will she prefer a manufactured forest to God’s wild jungles? Not gonna lie, that air conditioning was pretty convenient and I liked that the cloud forest was stroller accessible, but something about how modern it all was turned my stomach a bit.

The cloud forest was really, really cool though.

I’d never heard that term before, but I learned that a cloud forest is essentially a rainforest where the moisture that facilitates all of the wildlife is not from rain, but from a constant cloud cover. Like the world’s rainforests, cloud forests are highly concentrated hubs of life.

This waterfall creates the cloudy mist that sustains the entire dome. How beautiful is that?

Probably the most famous area of the Gardens by the Bay is the Super Tree Grove. This is mostly what creeped me out about the whole place. These are not trees! They are not superior to trees! These are little tree shaped tower robots that light up and play music at night time. But they are also pretty incredibly cool.

By afternoon, sweet T was over all the traveling. She mangled a banana and fell asleep in the carnage, so I lugged her back to our Air BnB for an afternoon nap.

We fell asleep reading Jaws.

“There’s nothing in the sea this fish would fear. Other fish run from bigger things. That’s their instinct. But this fish doesn’t run from anything. He doesn’t fear.”